


Hope is the Thing with Feathers

by BL4CK1 (webslinger9_5am)



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-02-25 23:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13223550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webslinger9_5am/pseuds/BL4CK1
Summary: K-2 is rebooted on Hoth. He had calculated the probability of this scenario to be less than 2%.





	1. It can be hard to keep alive

K-2SO reboots on Hoth. At first, He is only slightly disappointed because this means that he died on Scarrif. He has enough time for the hope that Cassian and the others still completed the mission to cycle through his processors before the rebel who'd rebooted him steps into his line of sight.

He suddenly realizes, with a jolt, that it had not occurred to him that Cassian might not have made it back.

The rebel, a young male with unnecessarily long blond hair and blue eyes, smiles, “There. That's better. How’re you feeling?”

K-2SO’s drives hum as he calculates the probabilities of his reboot without Cassian somehow being directly involved. They were and still remain very low despite current evidence to the contrary.

The rebel is frowning now, peering up at K-2 as if he could see the droid’s sentience.

K-2 Gives in and run's cursory diagnostics. At least whoever had put him back together had found the right type of droid for his body, “Systems operational,” K supplies for the rebel’s benefit.

The young male grins, “Great! I've been trying to get you up for weeks. Han didn't think I could do it but Leia got me some of the parts. I'm Luke, by the way.”

K’s optics whir in their sockets as he regards the male, “Luke.”

“Yup,” The blond needlessly confirms.

“Where is Cassian?” K asks.

The blond furrowed his brow in a confused pout that I would have normally made fun of.

“I'm not sure who Cassian is,” Luke said carefully, “Leia just asked me to take a look at you. She said you belonged to an old friend of hers.”

The humming of K-2’s processors winds down in pitch as the phrasing sinks in. Cassian was dead. But the rebel couldn't know that. The Princess wouldn't waste resources to get him back on line without purpose.

“Are you okay?” Luke asks, The worried frown returning.

K doesn't bother running diagnostics again- or answering the rebel's question, “The Death Star plans. Were they sent?”

This only seems to confuse the blond but he answers anyway, “Yeah. We destroyed it almost a month ago.”

A month. He has been deactivated for a month. Cassian would have had him rebooted by then.

For all his preaching on how he'd out last the Festian, Kay wishes it hadn't been true. The rest registers that the young rebel who'd rebooted him is talking again, explaining what had happened to facilitate the station's destruction with the excited glee of new blood. Kay can't really fault him for not knowing how the plans had come into the rebellion’s possession. The boy clearly wasn't told.

The door to the room they're in slides open and Princess Leia strides in wearing white thermal wear.

One glance at K-2 and her somber expression breaks into a sad smile, “Welcome back, K-2.”

“Where is Cassian?” Kay asks enlue of a response, hoping against hope that he was wrong. Cassian had tricked his sensors before. He could do it again.

Luke glances between the two of them wearily but he doesn't seem all that surprised by the droid’s lack of manners. 

Neither does Leia, but then, she's known him long enough to expect it. And her gaze is more fixed on the floor anyway, “I'm sorry.”

Two words and Kay knows. He'd suspected before but his systems glitch at the confirmation to his dread anyway. They had known the risks- Cassian more than anyone. Kay suspects that was why the spy had told him to back up his systems in a separate drive ahead of schedule.

The knowledge doesn't make it any better. Cassian is still dead. K-2 is still alone.

The rebel- Luke is still looking between them like one of them might suddenly snap and try to kill him. It makes his following question a complete surprise, “Who's Cassian?”

Then again, maybe Kay needs to run another diagnostic.

He doesn't bother and the Princess doesn't answer, eyes turning just a bit sadder.

Kay answers for her and if his vocal processor glitches when he speaks, neither human comments when he says, “He was my friend.”


	2. If You Keep It Bottled Up Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> K-2 on the Falcon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short and that it took so long. Things have been hectic.

_ K-2 blinked online to the sound of alarms blaring. His visual sensors came on a half cycle later and he noted that he was not alone in the small control room.  _

_ A boy crouched in front of him wearily with one hand on a blaster much too large for him. _

_ K-2SO calculated a forty percent chance of the boy getting off a shot before the droid could do any damage. Eighty percent chance he would try if K-2SO moved. _

_ K-2SO determined he would very much like to avoid getting shot and remained perfectly still. _

_ The boy frowned and leaned closer, “Hey. You- are you alive in there?” He asked in stilted basic. _

_ “No,” K-2SO responded and the boy flinched with a grimace of pain. _

_ “I am inorganic,” K-2SO explained, “I am not alive.” _

“Jeez. I'm sorry I asked. The kid _ said _ you were touchy,” A man grumbles. He's tall for a human, nearly coming up to Kay's shoulder, and his hair is deep brown against the fur lining of his white parka.

“I was not talking to you,” Kay responds because he wasn't, not because it'll help anything. It won't.

The man huffs a laugh and starts walking away, “Talking to ghosts then. Great. That's just what we need.”

Kay trails behind him. 

“First Luke, now this, maybe there _ is a _ Force,” the man grumbles but he doesn't sound angry. He sounds almost- well, he sounds more sad than anything, but his tone is almost  _ fond _ .

Kay makes a note in his drive and pulls up what information he has on the man.

“Chewie! We've got an extra set of hands. If anyone asks, I'm showing him what to do,” the man- Han Solo- calls to a Wookie sitting on top of a large Corellian freighter. This would be the Millennium Falcon, then.

The Wookie roars a reply that is almost scandalous and Kay follows the freighter’s captain inside without comment, though his processors come up with several. Despite what Cassian had said about him, Kay does  _ not _ say everything that passed through his circuits. That would be tedious and counterproductive- especially for a spy. 

“See if you can talk to the Falcon, would ya? It hadn't been starting right and the sub-light engines have been a bit iffy,” Captain Solo calls over his shoulder.

Kay looks over the passage by the data port. Most of the wiring is exposed and patches look like they've already caught fire, “Really. I wonder why.”

“That's what you're here to figure out,” Captain Solo calls from the cockpit.

The man clearly needs to be taught a Thing or two about sarcasm.

Kay extends his data spike and starts sifting through information, “With the state its in, I'm surprised this scrap pile even flies at all.”

“Hey!” 

“Several of the contacts in the circuit to the hyperdrive have been damaged,” Kay reports before the Captain can say anything else, “I would suggest repairing them before you attempt to do anything rash.”

The Captain grumbles something but Kay is too far away for his audio sensors to pick it up.

Kay doesn't bother trying to find out what it was. There's a forty percent chance it wasn't an insult but there's an eighty percent chance that- if it was- the smuggler didn't mean it. Kay dismisses the information and returns to sifting through the Falcon’s computer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More exposition. It should pick up soon.


	3. But If You Let It Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kay & R2

The hyperdrive is one item on a very long list of things wrong with the Falcon. Kay spends the better part of a week pointing them out to the Captain and his Wookie counterpart. When he isn't doing that, he converses with the astromech droid, R2D2. While picking up binary through his audio sensors is a bit... _ unusual _ , the conversations are usually pleasant enough. R2 has seen and done quite a lot, after all. 

C3PO is, on the other hand, down right infuriating. 

Kay calculates the chances of the protocol droid surviving a field mission at about thirteen percent- four intact- and enjoys running scenarios where the Rogue One crew survives and meets the gold-domed menace. Three of them involve Jyn Erso and a trunchion. The other four have a mixture of Baze Malbus, Chirrut Imwe, and a begrudgingly disapproving Cassian. 

Kay shares the scenarios with R2 when 3PO is busy (because the protocol droid would complain more otherwise) and Captain Solo, Luke and Chewbacca are eating.

R2D2 seems to find the fantasies amusing. Luke nearly chokes on his food when he overhears and Captain Solo laughs until Chewbacca roars at him.

Princess Leia sits down at the table a minute later and asks if Luke is alright.

The blond manages to school his features after a moment and nods, “Kay, if you've got time after we're done here, there's something I wanna show you.”

Kay glances at captain Solo and Leia.

The smuggler shrugs and the Princess nods subtly.

Kay agrees and R2 tells him about a time when he helped a queen, two Jedi and a boy liberate a planet called Naboo. The story is fascinating, if not filled with tactical errors on the humans’ parts (Kay keeps these to himself), and Kay finds that maybe- just maybe- He isn't so alone after all.

 

Luke shows him a squadron. It takes longer for the name of the squadron to cycle through Kay's processors than it should. When it does, Kay's pretty sure something in his core has overheated.

“It was Leia’s idea,” Luke admits when Kay doesn't say anything, “She made sure all the pilots know where the name came from and why there's no Rogue One.”

Kay goes to respond. It's expected. He's rarely held back in the company of- comrades- fellow alliance. He can't say friends and even the words he finds as substitutes seem wrong. In any case, he has nothing to say.

Jyn would be saying something snide right now.

Luke is watching him as if the blond can read K-2’s emotions. Kay is unaware of if droids have a presence in the Force. Captain Solo has grumbled about it enough for the security droid to conclude that Luke is a Force user- a Jedi.

The blond's hand brushes one of Kay's arms and their gazes meet, “They won't be forgotten Kay.”

Something inside Kay's processors clicks in the closest he can come to a scoff, “That doesn't help them now.”

_ Kay, _ a voice admonishes in his wiring and it sounds like Cassian.

Luke just nods somberly, “No, I suppose not.”

He offers no further words and they just stand there, looking at the fighters for several minutes before Kay finds his words again, “Thank you.”

Luke smiles, “Any time.”

“I should hope not,” Kay remarks.

Luke blinks and his mouth drops open and closes again, “Oh. No, That would be-”

“Inappropriate,”Kay supplies.

“Strange,” Luke corrects.

“And against protocol,” Kay agreed, “I still don't know how you pulled this off.”

Luke scratches at the back of his head, “Well…”

The rebel’s explanation involves Leia, Draven and Senator Mon Mothma as well as a brief mention of the Princess’ father.

K-2 takes in the new information and his processors wir as the programs he normally uses for statistical analysis come to the definite conclusion that no, he is not alone anymore. This is what Rogue One had been fighting for- these people- their friends. Even if Bodhi, Baze, Chirrut and Jyn hadn't known the resistance personnel, they'd known each other- to some degree. They'd fought for each other and somewhere in his old memory banks, K-2 recalls that this was what friendship was.

The security droid notes that Luke has stopped talking again and his optics drift to where the blond is looking at him awkwardly.

“Thank you,” Kay says again because he's come to a realization and it needs to be said again.

Luke just smiles warmly and they start heading back towards the Falcon where Solo and the Wookie are starting to get back to their repairs.

_ “Welcome home, Kay,”  _ a familiar voice says right in his audio sensor. 

Kay turns but there's no one there.

Luke stops and Kay passes him with a shake of his head. He doesn't see the blond’s eyes go huge at the sight of the dead Captain standing in the middle of the hangar with a sad smile and light blue ringing his ragged frame. He doesn't see the two exchange a nod before Luke is trotting after him again.

“Hey, professor!” Solo calls.

Kay is not a professor and he lets Solo know that as he draws closer to the Corellian ship.

He doesn't see Luke glance over his shoulder at the ghost but something hums in his circuits when Cassian grins.

_ Welcome home. _

Heat floods Kay's circuitry and for the first time since Scarriff,  Kay feels that is true.

_ Thank you. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now is the point in the story where I go "dang it! There's only two lines of the poem left and the story's not ready to end yet!"


End file.
